Family Hopes To Keep Blacksmith Shop Alive

April 13, 2001|By MARY ANN LOPEZ The News Leader

LEXINGTON — Jack Chaffee takes a rod of steel from his flaming forge, and with a hammer, he pounds new life into the shapeless piece of metal.

As blacksmith and curator of Brown's Forge, Chaffee, 70, is not only shaping metal, but also the future of the forge. Chaffee is helping Jackie Leslie, Manly Brown Jr. and Frank Brown Jr. preserve and retain their family's history while achieving their dream of creating a historical working blacksmith museum. He has been renovating the forge since August.

"There are not that many places that have a forge that has been kept in the family so long," said Suann Brown, wife of Frank Brown, one of the owners.

Three generations of Browns have worked the forge since 1850. Manly Brown, who followed in the footsteps of Andrew Jackson Brown and Frank Brown, died in October 1999. The first forge was originally on Jefferson Street, Frank Jr. said. The second forge was a wood building that also served as an icehouse. It was torn down, and the current forge was built of precast cement blocks in 1915.

Manly Brown was the last member of the family to make a living as a blacksmith, and he worked up until he died at 93, said Suann Brown.

"We kind of wanted to do this for granddaddy because it's something he wanted to do before he died," she said.

Time and money are obstacles to Manly's wishes, Frank said.

"There is a great deal of interest. Many people are saying that they are happy that it is going to be saved," Brown said.

Chaffee recently came to the Shenandoah Valley after working as an artist in North Carolina.

"I was looking for a place to retire, and I said by the time I was 70, I wanted to get back to the hills," Chaffee said.

When he spotted the dormant forge while walking through Lexington and began to inquire about it, his dream merged with that of the family he was about to meet. The forge and the family presented Chaffee with the perfect opportunity to continue with his pursuit of artistic metalwork.

Chaffee remembers walking as a child in West Virginia past the local blacksmith's forge, stopping inside to warm up.

"I was very strongly impressed by blacksmiths as a kid. The blacksmith seemed to be a magician," Chaffee said.

He said he hopes that using the forge as a working museum will help give other youngsters that magical feeling.

David F. Reynolds, president of the Rockbridge County Historical Society, said he thinks the forge is an important part of local history and should be kept alive, especially for children. Reynolds hopes the historical society and the family will be able to secure outside funding to bring the project to fruition, he said.

Right now, Chaffee and the Browns are using their own money to support the project, but they are planning to apply for grants and nonprofit status, Brown said. The family continues to work closely with the city to make sure the building conforms to the historical district codes.

"It is important for the history of the city," said Jean Clark, director of tourism in Lexington. "It keeps us connected with our past."

Krista Moss, Frank's daughter, wants to keep that connection to her family and said she wants her sons, 3-year-old Tyler and 3-month-old Jordan, to learn the trade because it's part of their history.

"It was something that was so important to my grandfather," she said. "It always tickled my grandfather to death when people would come in after something he made was finished," she said. "They would say, 'Why should we buy a new one at a store if you can make it for us?"'